Sonia excludes dissenter Sharma from HP panels

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 23

Barely a week after she met the dissenters who had written to her in August seeking radical organisational changes, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today excluded one of them, Anand Sharma, from key committees for Himachal Pradesh.

Sharma, one of the 23 Congress leaders who wrote to Sonia seeking comprehensive elections for party structures, is the only sitting MP of the party to have not found any place in the three committees announced today.

Among 14 members of the Political Affairs Committee Sonia approved today are state unit chief Kuldeep Rathore, CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri, former CM Virbhadra Singh, former AICC in charge Asha Kumari, Viplove Thakur, Dhaniram Shandil, former state chief Sukhwinder Sukhu, Ramlal Thakur, Rajender Rana, Jagat Singh Negi, Sudhir Sharma and Pawan Kajal.

AICC in charge for the state Rajiv Shukla will chair the meetings of this panel.

The coordination committee has 15 members among them Kuldeep Rathore, Agnihotri, Virbhadra Singh, Kaul Singh Thakur, Kuldeep Kumar, Rajesh Dhiman Harsh Mahajan among others.

Viplove Thakur will chair the disciplinary panel which has as members KS Pathania, ML Barakta, Sharmila Patial, Chetram Thakur and Sanjay Awasthi.